Play the Simon Game on Your Shirt

Have you always wanted to play the Simon game on your shirt? Me too!

In this instructable, I'll show you how to make a version of the Simon game that you can play by touching your shirt, using a Makey Makey.

You will need:

• A Makey Makey
• A safety vest (like the one you keep in the car)
• Conductive fabric (at least 14cm * 14cm)
• Conductive thread
• A sewing machine (you can also manually sew it)
• Fabric glue, e.g. Guterman HT2 and an iron
• Alligator leads (5)

You need to place the four "buttons" (made out of the conductive fabric) on the vest. We used the back of the safety vest, because in that way it is nicely divided into four areas, but feel free to be creative. You should cut the fabric to an appropriate size, we used 7cm * 7cm.

Place the four "buttons" made from the conductive fabric that you cut in the previous step on the vest, and glue them. If you are using fabric glue like the HT2, you need to put the glue on one side, wait 5 minutes, place them on the vest without applying pressure, wait 30 minutes, and then iron it for 10-15 seconds.

You now need to wire the four "buttons" using the conductive thread to the place where the Makey Makey will be connected (ideally next to a pants pocket). This can be done using a sewing machine or manually. If using a machine, you only need to use conductive material on one side (the other side can be regular thread). Make sure that the conductive wire does not cross another wire (see the picture), and leave some conductive wire (1cm) at the end to connect to the Makey Makey.

Connect the four wires you just sewed to the four alligator wires. Cover them with insulating tape of some sort so they won't touch each other. Connect the other ends of the alligator wires to the arrows on the Makey Makey. You should connect the wires so that the directions will be correct when you are wearing them, i.e. make sure the right arrow is connected to where the right "button" is when you are wearing it (and not as it is when it is lying on the table).

Connect the fifth alligator wire to the earth connection on the Makey Makey, and connect the other end to yourself. It needs to touch your skin, I connected it to a rubber band which I put on my wrist.

Connect the Makey Makey using its USB cable to the computer.

To play the Simon game, go to a web version of the game

You can also play other games (like car games) that are controlled using the arrow keys.

Be creative and have fun!